Articles

By Patrice Orenes-Lerma

For an organisation’s procurement function to operate at full efficiency, it needs to connect seamlessly to other corporate-wide systems. This can be achieved – with the right processes and the right technologies linking them together. But it’s not easy. Sometimes, processes can slip and the overall procurement effort suffers, leading to missed deadlines, cost overruns and reduced profitability. How can you tell if your procurement process needs fixing? Here are eight signs things are going awry – and some corresponding tips on ways to improve business processes.

It’s comforting to think that if fraud exists, it exists elsewhere – anywhere in fact other than right now - in your organisation and your own department. And in fact, it’s that assumption which makes life a whole lot easier for those hoping to embark on a life of AP crime.

Of course, no-one likes to think that someone they work with could be capable of fraud, and yet the truth is – fraud happens – and it happens quite a lot. And you’re not looking for a shady character in a badly judged mac with dodgy eyebrows. Statistically it’s likely to be “John” who’s worked for the company for the last 15 years. Perhaps “John” feels entitled after all the unrecognised hard work he’s put in. Perhaps it’s his way of righting a long standing wrong. Who knows.. but most of all – John is doing it because he can.

For some time I’ve argued that what you call something doesn’t necessarily matter – it’s whether you get out of it what you expect, and what you need that’s important. Take making a cup of tea for example – I can put a pan on the hob and wait for the water to boil, or I can flick a switch on a kettle. Both processes are boiling water – one is just e-boiling... which process I follow depends on time, resources and a large helping of common sense.

In the days before the internet, AP departments dealt solely with paper and all transactions were manual – right? Well, not quite. In those days the new kid on the block was EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) which for the most part relied on VANs (Value Added Networks) to transmit data – such as purchase orders and invoices – between suppliers.